The Worst Day
by Apollos-Ace
Summary: Rei's day seems to go from bad to worse, when she's ready to break, will someone be there to help?


Rei shivered, pulling at the hood of her sweatshirt uselessly. It wasn't as if the torrential downpour would be deterred by a flimsy piece of fabric anyway, today being one of the only days she had forgotten her trench coat. A quick glance at the sky showed no signs of the rain letting up so she trudged on, only half aware of the chilled feeling seeping into her body as she kept her eyes focused demurely on the ground.

It had been a long day. A long, slow, and utterly agonizing day. One that, in all honesty, she would like nothing better than to sink into bed and completely forget about. She'd known from the moment her eyes had opened this morning that today would be bad. She hadn't, however, been counting on the day from hell.

She'd woken up happy enough, stretching and staring at the ceiling sleepily, sitting up only when she realized that there had been no morning tackle-hug from Cali. A quick and rather paranoid glance at her alarm clock had confirmed her fears. '7:35', the red letters stared up at her mockingly as realization dawned on her.

'Crap…crap…CRAP!'

She leapt from her bed, dressing, combing her hair, and brushing her teeth in record time before sprinting down the stairs, only to trip and fall on the last step, ankle twisting beneath her. This, of course, had been noticed and laughed at by everyone who had miraculously appeared to witness this humiliating moment. The great agile thief...tripping over her own feet. Even Scott snickered at her before shaking his head and telling everyone to hurry up and get in the car. Rei felt her face flushing as she rose to her feet with as much dignity as she could muster; shaking her head at Jay's concerned expression as she walked away, trying desperately to mask her limp.

School had been worse…much worse. Sometime during Homeroom she realized that, along with missing breakfast and forgetting lunch money, she also had to cook dinner tonight at the mansion. Needless to say, her head connected with her desk soon after. The day continued with a failed Algebra II test, a merciless PE session, and forgotten English essay.

Lunch was the worst. None of her friends were to be found, which meant no food, and also meant no pack protection. Whenever groups of High School kids saw a mansion dweller by themselves, bad things happened. Rei had picked up on this quickly, and had almost instantly learned the lunch schedules of her fellow mutants. Normally she could find one or two others to hang with if Jay and Cali had tutoring, no such luck today.

Deciding to buy some time until someone discovered her solitude, she slunk into a bathroom to wrap her ankle after a quick stop at the nurse's office. This done, she moved hesitantly outside. Alone, she'd found a corner to sit in, giving her full view of the school and therefore full view of all potential threats. Her efforts however, had proved pointless.

Thirty-five minutes, a broken pair of sunglasses, a painfully bruised jaw, several injured jocks, and a detention later, Rei moved on to fourth period.

The rest of the day was eventless, unless you counted the horrified stares of everyone who saw her strange eyes for the first time, quickly followed by sharp, cruel comments about her possible parentage. Eventually school ended, and Rei was forced to explain to Scott just why she couldn't go home quite yet. He'd been furious, ignoring her bruised face and injured ankle, and instead telling her that rather than him coming to pick her up, she could walk home after her detention to 'think about what she'd done'.

Detention had come and gone, filled with stares, whispers, and awkward pauses.

Finally freed, she had nearly danced out of the school's front door, only to stop dead as she was instantly soaked by a downpour. Cursing the fates, she slowly limped the 2 mile walk back to the mansion, occasionally shivering and sniffling pitifully.

Eventually the mansion gates loomed into view, yet she couldn't bring herself to quicken her pace, body numb as her mind traveled back to painful memories of a scrawny street kid spending innumerable nights in cold alleyways.

She entered the mansion silently, noticing with little interest the drops of water dripping off of her as she tried futilely to remember what she was supposed to do now that she was home. Jean walked by and instantly froze, eyes narrowing dangerously before she stalked forward towards the young Cajun.

"Rei! What the hell are you doing!?" Rei blinked in surprise, raising her head slowly to lock gazes with the redhead.

"Huh?"

"You'd better clean this mess up before Storm sees it" Jean hissed furiously "You're so immature! Just standing there and expecting someone to clean up after you!" Rei glanced down and realized with surprise that the rain had formed a muddy puddle beneath her.

"Sorry Jean…I'll…clean this…up" She murmured softly blinking slowly as her fuzzy mind tried to process this new turn of events. Jean merely "hmph'd" and stalked away with a flick of her head.

At that exactly moment Scott appeared around the corner and glanced at her before laughing.

"You look like a drowned rat" he snickered, before his face suddenly became painfully serious.

"Because you were late, I had to make dinner…being lazy isn't going to work around here, Rei. You better pick up the pace" Scott sent her a disapproving look before vanishing through the doorway and leaving Rei by herself.

Ten minutes later found Rei slinking up the stairs, foyer spotless. Without warning, she found herself sprawled on the top stair as her feet gave out beneath her, while she stared at her legs in confused surprise. Moments passed, and she realized with a start that her body wouldn't listen to her, instead choosing to remain lying helplessly on the ground. Pure exhaustion coursed through her as the day's events replayed before her eyes. So tired…

Snapping her eyes open, she turned her head only to furrow her brows as she found that the 'wall' her head was pressed against was moving. Upon further inspection, she realized that it was warm as well! Rather than ignoring this strange occurrence, as most people in her situation would do, Rei nudged the 'wall' rather harshly with her forehead, only to be met with a sharp 'oof'. Almost instantly she found herself being shifted before a familiar face came into view.

"Knock it off, Rei…we're almost at your room" the face's voice muttered in annoyance, though the concern laced into the tone was clearly identifiable. The girl stared up at the face for a long moment before realization jolted through her.

"Max…" her barely audible voice caught the person's attention and he looked down at her.

"Yeah…it's me"

Rei yawned, instinctively curling closer to the warmth she could feel all around her.

'Wait…warm?'

Yanking her head up, the girl looked around in confusion, only to blink in surprise at the sight that met her eyes. Cali was sprawled beside her, red hair splayed across the Cajun's stomach, Jay was at the foot of her bed, curled up like a cat, and Max was behind her, sitting up against the wall and allowing her to use his legs as a pillow.

A small smile curled at her lips as she lay down once more, snuggling back into the warmth.


End file.
